CS4 - Care Compass

Caregiver burden is a major issue - especially for people juggling work and caring for a loved one.

In addition to the huge personal burden family caregivers face, business in Canada loses $1.3 Billion annually in lost productivity due to the impact of caring for family members with dementia.

Research shows that equipping family caregivers with the knowledge and skills they need is a key factor in improving employed caregiver ability to cope and keep loved ones at home.

Intervention programs exist, like Mount Sinai’s Reitman Centre Working CARERS program, a ESDC funded national initiative devoted to sustaining employed family caregivers.

However working caregivers are very hard to reach because they don’t identify themselves as caregivers or in need and hence don’t access available resources.

We have built a research app & outreach strategy that will help connect working family caregivers to a tailored intervention program.

Care Compass is an iPhone app, built with Apple research kit that uses a set of research questions to help people self-identify as caregivers. It assesses their caregiving stage and stress level, and gives participants a view of their readiness and capacity to cope. Tailored information and support recommendations are provided specific to their situations and qualified participants are invited to participate in the Working CARERS program.

This solution is unique because it is the first program that will enable working caregivers to safely and anonymously self-identify, recognize their stress and link to effective tailored interventions. Beyond helping the individual caregiver this solution also addresses a major societal priority of enhancing the caregiver wellbeing and productivity of the Canadian workforce.

Built With

• ios
• objective-c
• researchkit
• ruby-on-rails